Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2014

NATO in the Gulf: Partnership Without a Cause?

Jean-loup Samaan

October 2012

NATO Defense College

Abstract

Eight years after NATO initiated its engagement with Gulf countries through the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), the results have been modest, not to say disappointing. True, some recent achievements are worth mentioning: the participation in 2011 of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Operation Unified Protector in Libya, or the appointment, the same year, of the first UAE Ambassador to NATO, which represented an unprecedented and innovative way to strengthen the partnership.